LBJ the corrupt

2nd section of Robert A. Caro LBJ magna-bio volume 4 covers the years of Johnson's vice-presidency in, for the maximalist Caro, in pretty succinct fashion - understandably, in that the whole point of the section (or one point of the section) is to emphasize the insignificance of the vice-presidency - the only rel function being to stand and wait. The drama of this section is that Johnson entered the veep-ship with the zany idea in mind that he could continue to be a powerful figure in the U.S. Senate, in part because of the role of the veep as "presiding" over the Senate, and he pushed and lobbied to be able to retain his influence as Majority Leader - and was shocked to find that Senators were not so eager to hand over power to the executive branch. He had the mistaken belief, which Caro repeats many times, that "power is where power goes," that is, that as a powerful leader he could exert control even from a powerless position - but he was completely wrong: his power was by virtue of his position, not by virtue of his personality per se, and he gave up that power when he left the Senate. Resigned to his new role, he thought he could be a great influence on the President, but found himself excluded from all key presidential decisions and meetings, having less and less private access to JFK himself, in part because RFK continued to despise Johnson. Frustrated, Johnson began to speak out on Civil Rights and received a lot of praise for that - and JFK became interested in Johnson's views of Civil Rights legislation, but at the same time JFK was realizing that he didn't need Johnson's help in the 64 elections and that it wasn't clear that Johnson could even deliver his home state because of various rifts in the Texas Democratic establishment: hence, the fateful trip to Dallas. All this under the shadow of investigations under way re LBJ's personal fortune - Caro makes it clear that LBJ was completely corrupt in his use of government influence for personal gain - that would very likely (in my view) have led to an impeachment: all that quashed after the assassination, as the media was unwilling to go after the new president during a time of national mourning and uncertainty.